In order to more efficiently broadcast or record audio signals, the amount of information required to represent the audio signals may be reduced. In the case of digital audio signals, the amount of digital information needed to accurately reproduce the original pulse code modulation (PCM) samples may be reduced by applying a digital compression algorithm, resulting in a digitally compressed representation of the original signal. The goal of the digital compression algorithm is to produce a digital representation of an audio signal which, when decoded and reproduced, sounds the same as the original signal, while using a minimum of digital information for the compressed or encoded representation.
Recent advances in audio coding technology have led to high compression ratios while keeping audible degradation in the compressed signal to a minimum. These coders are intended for a variety of applications, including 5.1 channel film soundtracks, HDTV, laser discs and multimedia. Description of one applicable method can be found in the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) Standard document entitled “Digital Audio Compression (AC-3) Standard”, Document A/52, 20 Dec., 1995, and the disclosure of that document is hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference.
The implementation of an AC-3 encoder by translation of the requirements and processes from the abovementioned AC-3 Standard onto the firmware of a digital signal processor (DSP) core involves several phases. Firstly, the essential compression algorithm blocks of the AC-3 encoder have to be designed, since it is only the functions which are defined by the standard. After individual blocks are completed, they are integrated into an encoding system which receives a PCM (pulse code modulated) stream, processes the signal applying signal processing techniques such as transient detection, frequency transformation, masking and psychoacoustic analysis, and produces a compressed stream in the format of the AC-3 Standard.
The coded AC-3 stream should be capable of being decompressed by any standard AC-3 Decoder and the PCM stream generated thereby should be comparable in audio quality to the original music stream. If the original stream and the decompressed stream are indistinguishable in audible quality (at reasonable level of compression) the development moves to the third phase. If the quality is not transparent (indistinguishable), further algorithmic development and improvements continue.
In the third phase the algorithms are simulated in a high level language (e.g. C) using the word-length specifications of the target DSP-Core. Most commercial DSP-Cores allow only fixed point arithmetic (since a floating point engine is costly in terms of integrated circuit area). Consequently, the encoder algorithms are translated to a fixed point solution. The word-length used is usually dictated by the ALU (arithmetic-logic unit) capabilities and bus-width of the target core. For example, an AC-3 encoder on a Motorola 56000 DSP would use 24-bit precision since it is a 24-bit Core. Similarly, for implementation on a Zoran ZR38000 which has a 20-bit data path, 20-bit precision would be used.
If, for example, 20-bit precision is discovered to provide an unacceptable level of sound quality, the provision to use double precision always exists. In this case each piece of data is stored and processed as two segments, lower and upper words, each of 20-bit length. The accuracy of implementation is doubled but so is the computational complexity, and double precision multiplication could require 6 or more cycles where a single precision multiplication and addition (MAC) may use only a single cycle. Block exponent and other boosting techniques specific to the AC-3 encoder can be judiciously used to improve the quality, but these features are not always found on the commercial DSPs.
Single precision 24-bit AC-3 encoders are known to provide sufficient quality. However 16-bit single precision AC-3 encoder quality is considered very poor. Consequently, the implementation of AC-3 encoders on 16-bit DSP cores has not been popular. Since a single precision 16-bit implementation of an AC-3 encoder results in unacceptable in reproduction quality, such a product would be at a distinct disadvantage in the consumer market. On the other hand, double precision implementation is too computationally expensive. It has been estimated that a fully double precision implementation would require over 140 MIPS (million instruction per second). This exceeds what most commercial DSPs can provide, and moreover, extra MIPS are always needed for system software and value-added features.